USS Constitution by usedtosail - FINISHED - Model Shipways - scale 1/76

[Jparsley]

Nice work can you build my boat lol

[DanO]

I relate the appearance of USS Constitution to one who has made many visits to a plastic surgeon over the years. The insides do not change but the outward appearance has. I believe that there is much more historical data which has been lost vs. that which is available. I enjoy the debate and there seems to be many views on how she looked at different peiods of her life basedon paintings to period models.

 

Like any other military piece she was improved to make her stronger to create a true fighting machine. Paintings are the product of the imagination of the artist and the, now aged models of the past, such as that which sits in a place of honor in the Peabody Essex museum are based on memory rather than actual plans giving the builder free mind to exibit their own interpretation.

 

I do not claim to be a historian nor expert concerning this valiant ship but just my humble opinion

 

Dan Doyle

[DanO]

Tom,

 

You are doing a fantastic job on your construction and to add a portion of the additional deck is one that shows your expertice at model building and quest to and desire to share your knowledge of Conny.

 

Thank you for sharing your build which I am sure many will us a a guide to create their own.

 

Dan Doyle

 

PS: I had friends in North Reading which is a fine town. I grew up in Lowell

[Guest Tim I.]

Tom,

 

Your coamings and detail work is fantastic! I am really enjoying seeing your Constitution come together.

 

- Tim

[usedtosail]

Thank you all for the comments and the likes. 

 

Thomas - I like your assortment of sanding sticks. I have a few of those but don't use them as much as I should.

 

JParsley - Welcome and thank you, but what fun would that be for you? You are doing a great job on your Constellation. The Conny would be a fine next model for you.

 

Dan - Nice to meet you and thank you. I agree with your assessment of the Conny history. It has been fun interpreting the various sources available. My son just graduated from UMass Lowell, but is staying an extra year to get his Masters degree. We have been spending a lot of time there since he has been living there.

 

Tim, George, and Rich - thanks for your continued encouragement.

[usedtosail]

I have been working on the U shaped main pin rail, which is a deviation from the kit supplied rails. I am using plans from the Constitution CD for this rail, which makes it easier to fabricate the pieces, at least. This U shaped rail is a distinctive feature of the Constitution over the other frigates of the time, so I really wanted to include it. I used the supplied rail for around the fore mast, only because I have no information on how it might have been different in 1812. I am also going to be adding the spider rail on the mizzen mast instead of the supplied rail, for the same reason as the U shaped rail. The Revell plastic kit includes these details, but the ME kit is the modern ship so does not have them.

 

I started by cutting the three rail pieces. I copied the plans and cut out templates for the rail pieces, which I glued to what I thought was 1/16" birch plywood because I knew these pieces would be prone to split. For the two lower rails, I glued two sheets together so I could cut them out and shape them at the same time. I then soaked these in alcohol to separate them, which worked great. I used sandpaper and a rounded file to get the final shapes after cutting the rough shapes on the scroll saw.

 

 

I then made the posts to hold these rail pieces. Here I deviated from the plans some. For instance, the plans show three separate sections for each post, with each section between the rails and sharing the holes in the rail. At this scale, I was pretty sure there was no way this would be both strong and straight. So, I made the posts as one piece, with the rounded parts the same diameter as the rest of the post, instead of larger as shown on the plans. It would not have been possible to slip the rails onto the posts if they were larger. I also used a thinner piece of dowel for the posts than shown because there is almost no wood left on the rails on either side of the holes if I used the larger sized dowel, as you can see on the above template.

 

I made the posts on the lathe by marking off the round sections and using s diamond file on edge to round them, then some fine sandpaper to clean them up. I moved the dowel for each section so I was always working close to the chuck, to avoid breaking the dowel while turning it.

 

 

 

 

It was now time to drill the holes for the posts in the rails. I first drilled the four holes in the top rail, using the template as a guide. I then used the top rail itself as a guide for the holes in the bottom two rails. At this point I realized I was not working with plywood, because both of the bottom pieces split. The holes were still rather large for these pieces too. So, I decided to make the lower pieces a bit more like the top piece with more wood around the holes. I traced the top rail onto the plywood then shortened the ends and cut them out individually on the scroll saw this time. I sanded them down a bit and drilled the holes, and was successful on one of the them. I had to remake the second, and again it split, although this time it was while dry fitting it to a post. For the final and successful try I traced the shape onto the wood, drilled the holes and made sure the poles slid in easily, then cut it out and shaped it. Here are the pieces, although the bottom piece was the last one that split. You can see the hole on the left is too close to the edge. By drilling the holes before cutting out the last piece, I could adjust the edge slightly to make sure the hole was centered more accurately.

 

 

I also drilled the holes for the belaying pins in the top rail, then dry fit the rails and posts. I am pretty happy with the look so far. I am going to try to glue them up without taking them apart again, but we will see. I even added a few belaying pins to see how they would look. I had to shorten them by about a 1/32" to make sure I could fit a piece of line under them.

 

 

 

And for full disclosure, here is the bone pile of broken rails.

 

 

I still have a bit of work to do on this piece after gluing. I have to sand down the tops of the posts to be flush with the top rail, and even up the bottoms of the posts. I think I am going to drill post sized holes in the support pieces before I plank the deck and glue these posts into the support pieces, then plank around them. Otherwise I would have to glue these thin posts to the decking, and even with some wire through the deck for extra support I think it will be too fragile later on when rigging. There are also six sheaves between the two bottom rails shown on the plans, which I am attempting to reproduce. They are a bit small, but I have some prototypes made that may work. Of course, I will let you know if they work or not.

[Guest Tim I.]

Looking good! I have a similar shaped rail to do for my Old Ironsides.

 

- Tim 

[DanO]

Tom,

 

Your work and patience are to be recognized.

 

Thanks for sharing

Dan

[GLakie]

Nice work on the pin-rails Tom. Your perseverance is paying off handsomely!  

 

Cheers

[Modeler12]

Nice work, Tom. I did not know that the pin rails had so many changes. 

Can you pin-point the location?

It is also refreshing to see that you have a 'scrap bin', some thing we all have at one time or other, but rather ignore.

[usedtosail]

Thanks Tim, Dan, George, and Jay, and the likes.

 

Jay, the plans I am using show the rail in relation to the main mast, so I can locate it from that. Of course, if the main mast location has moved since 1812 it won't be exactly right.

 

 

One more shot of the rail after some more work. I sanded the two lower rails so they are thinner now and match better. I also sanded down the tops of the posts so they are almost flush with the top rail. I didn't want to break anything so I stopped sanding when I got close. I also installed the sheaves between the two bottom rails. I used a strip of wood that I ran through the table saw on both sides to make a groove, then cut off squares and used a thin file to continue the groove around to the other two sides, to simulate a round piece between two square pieces. This picture is actually a little too close to see them clearly. I don't think I'll be running any lines through these as they are kind of fragile and the holes are pretty small.

 

 

I can now stain the fore and main pin rails, mount what I can and get ready to plank the spar deck. There is a support for the spencer mast at the mizzen that I need to make too. I can leave the spider rail for the mizzen until I make that mast since it does not attach to the deck.

[JSGerson]

Fine work!

 

I would strongly suggest that you add some pins to the stanchions so that you can anchor the assembly to the deck. I've read numerous build logs where the pin rails have been pulled off the deck when rigging lines were attached.

[usedtosail]

Thanks JS. I am going one further than pins - I have added wooden strips that will support the deck planks and will drill holes for the posts in these support pieces, glue in the rail to the supports, then plank around the posts. I was concerned that even with pins these small posts might pull out.

[DanO]

Tom,

 

This is  somewhat difficult to see but a photo of the Hull model at the PEM

 

Dan

[GLakie]

I'm seeing a couple different size belaying pins there. ---Probably camera "fooltography".  

[usedtosail]

Dan, yes that at least looks similar to what I made. Do any of those pictures have the rail at the fore mast? That is the one I am not sure of.

[DanO]

Tom,

 

Here are a few that I took, The glass case was up against a wall which limited my angle.

 

Glad to help anytime.

 

Be well

Dan

[DanO]

Tom,

 

I probably have about 50 photos and only sending those which I have resized to fit.  Will work on more if needed.

[usedtosail]

No further work needed. Those two middle images show what I was looking for, which is how I made the fore pin rail. Thanks a bunch.

 

You know, the irony is that I live about 5 miles from the Peabody museum but have never been in it. I have been meaning to go for ever and have just never gotten around to it.

[DanO]

Tom ,

 

I should have looked more before I leaped. I think that this one should help.

 

Dan

[usedtosail]

Yep, that is perfect Dan. Thank you very much. And for once, I don't have to remake something.

[bhermann]

You know, the irony is that I live about 5 miles from the Peabody museum but have never been in it. I have been meaning to go for ever and have just never gotten around to it.

 

Tom -

 

If you plan on going soon, you may want to wait until after August, but before October.  Salem tends to wind up a lot for the summer and around Halloween.  I haven't been to the PEM in years, but it is certainly worth the trip.

 

BTW, what you are doing here is making me think I may have to actually build a warship at some point in the future - I love the attention to detail you are putting into her!

 

Bob

[usedtosail]

Thanks for the heads up Bob. One of the reasons I haven't gone yet is that Salem is one of those places that is a b***h to get in and out of, any time of year. But you are right about the summer and October. Early Fall might just work fine.

[usedtosail]

I thought this was going to be a better update than it is, but I do have some progress to show.

 

First, here is the U shape main pin rail dry fit in place before finishing. It was a bit challenging drilling those four holes in the right places, but I took my time and measured many times before drilling. You can see how much sturdier this rail will be being glued into those sub deck support pieces.

 

 

I then gave the fore and main pins rails and the bitts a coat of pre-stain and two coats of oak stain.

 

 

I then positioned and glued most of the coaming hatches in place. There is one small one that goes just in front of the fore bitts, but I want to wait until the bitts are in place to get it in the right spot.

 

 

 

I started measuring and dry fitting deck planks between the forward coamings, but after I took these pictures I realized that I was using the wrong size planking strips, so I basically have to redo all of this. Not a big deal, but I did loose about an hours work. its all practice for the rest of it though, right?

 

 

I was happy with the way the planks line up along the coamings. This has not always been the case on previous builds.

 

[GLakie]

You're doing top-notch work on her Tom. She'll be a beauty in the end. 

[DanO]

Tom,

 

I am going to get a larger fan for the garage so that I can get back to my Conny. You are an inspiration to the old guy.

 

As for the gun deck I have not seen anyone bash the kit as you have which requires a lot of research and patience

 

Dan

[Modeler12]

Tom, this is really neat work. The details are perfect and I will be watching more to come. 

Considering that this is a 'kit bashing' type, I cannot think of any one doing a better job. In fact, you could have done the whole ship from scratch.    

As always, I love the gun deck details. But be sure to keep the oven in the right place.

[usedtosail]

Thanks George, Dan, and Jay, and thanks for all the likes, guys.

 

Dan - I am an old guy too, so we old guys need to keep inspiring each other. I hope you get to start your Conny soon and I will enjoy following along.

 

Jay - Thanks. I wanted something a bit different and when I saw how the bulkheads were shaped, I figured I could pull this off. Also, since ME sells the extra guns. I think others in the past have modelled the gun deck too. You are doing a great job on the cross section and the research especially is very useful. Your full model is pretty terrific too. As for the stove placement, here is what I have. The part of the gun deck I modelled includes only the back of the stove, but you can see where it is in relation to the riding bitts aft of the fore mast on the gun deck and the fore mast location. I think maybe I moved the bitts a bit further back to make room between it and the stove, but to me it looks workable.

 

 

 

And here is what I worked on last night, cutting planks to fit around the forward coamings. These are just dry fit, but they are the right size planking now. The fore mast hole is too wide, so I have to replace the four outer cut planks with two full planks.

 

 

 

[thomaslambo]

Hi Tom,

 

Just beautiful work, love all the upgrades and great work on the u-shaped main pin rail....gotta love the little proxxon lathes (I've been turning a few dowels myself)    

Edited July 24, 2015 by thomaslambo

[usedtosail]

Thomas - yes that little lathe really comes in handy. I am using it more and more.

 

I continued cutting planks for between the coamings. I used a small round file to notch the planks around the U shaped pin rail supports. I lucked out that I didn't have a plank with the support right in the middle. I used wider planks for the two center planks, but now I am going to replace them with three regular width planks, because they look too different. I also measured the widest portion of the spar deck to determine that there will be 41 planks across the width of the deck, so I have to fit all 41 into the 8.4 cm at the transom, since these planks are tapered at the transom. That means each plank at the transom needs to be 2.04 mm wide. I have to figure out the best way to taper these planks, since this area will be very visible and not painted, so I can't hide my flaws. I recently bought the tapering jig for the Byrnes saw, so this may be the time to break it out/in. I am open to other suggestions too. For hull planking I have been cutting the planks with an X-Acto knife and sanding them afterwards, but I don't always get nice flat edges that way. Here are some pics of the planking progress. None of the planks are glued down yet, and I have yet to mark the edges of these, for which I have been using a Black Sharpie on one edge.